Ahti Tyysteri
Karkkila (1940-2023)
Picture: Veli Granö
Ahti Tyyster's artistic journey began with a neighbor's bear statue
Ahti Tyysteri already showed an exceptional interest in woodworking at a young age and created his own furniture for himself. This early interest in woodworking certainly served as the seed for his future artistic journey, which only began after he reached retirement age.
One day, Ahti noticed a handsome bear statue in her neighbor’s yard. That surprising sight ignited Ahti’s imagination and created an inner spark. The coincidence served as a turning point, awakening the creativity that had been waiting to be discovered.
Laughter could not extinguish the fire of Ahti Tyyster's art
The Finnish tradition carries with it a feature where the spirit of competition between neighbors may appear as a subtle goal to be a little better than the neighbor. Ahti Tyyster’s story with wood sculptures reflects exactly this tradition. One day, Ahti saw a handsome bear statue in the yard of a neighboring cottage, and this sight awakened her curiosity and inspiration, from which everything started.
Ahti received laughter and suspicion, but they could not suppress her inner spark. They only serve as fuel for his decision to carve his own bear out of wood. The laughter of the others gradually disappeared when Ahti carved a bear from a wooden plank, and later about a hundred of them accumulated.
Picture: Veli Granö
An interesting feature of Ahti’s art is that, although he had a strong interest in animal subjects, he was not equally enthusiastic about human subjects. However, Ahti also showed his skills with his presidential sculptures, such as Tarja Halonen and Sauli Niinistö. His ability to create human figures testified to his versatile talent. Although animals were Ahti’s passion, he also sculpted human subjects beautifully, highlighting the versatility of his art.
